I'm Finished with this Semester!!!

As of a few minutes ago, I am completely finished with this semester!  I just finished typing up my last paper on Othello for my World Literature class.  (Very messed up play that Shakespeare wrote in my opinion.)  I worked my booty off and I'm hoping for A's.  My friends and family really helped me with my speech class.  I had to have six audience members for all of my speeches, and they were always there to watch them and I am very grateful.  Now I can breathe again haha!  I love school, but between that and all the other things to do in the world, it takes up A LOT of time.  It will absolutely be worth it in the end though when I get my degree and start teaching.  I may be 80 by the time I finish, but I will finish!

Zac and I will be parents in approximately 10 weeks.  I am SO excited!  This pregnancy has been a blessing and has gone by very fast.  I can't believe Kaden is almost here.  Since I've been so busy with school, we haven't decorated or anything yet, so now I can do that yay!  He's been kicking like crazy today and it makes me smile every time he does it :)  He's a strong boy, I can tell!  To be honest though, I am utterly terrified of the delivery.  I know most or all women say that, but I am.  It's scary.  It's something I've never done before and I think that's what scares me the most.  I really don't know what to expect, but once we see him, that all won't matter anymore.  I'm tearing up thinking about seeing him for the first time.  I wonder what he looks like.  What his hair color is, what his eye color will be, what he will be like, what his passions will be.  We are ready to meet this little guy and I know his 4 wonderful grandparents and the rest of our family and friends can't wait to meet him either!  We love him so much already!  I am now going to the doctor every two weeks and I believe in the last month, I will go every week.  It's coming up fast!  I pray for a very healthy boy and a wonderful delivery :)  and I also pray that it doesn't ice or snow because it will be February and it would not be fun trying to go up to Ardmore from Gainesville on ice when I'm in labor.  See, I'm freaking myself out and I need to stop!  Thank you Lord for blessing us with a baby.  :)

I also can't believe it's almost Christmas!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with both of our families!  I now have time to make a Christmas wreath.  I saw this wreath online and I HAVE to make it!  Hobby Lobby here I come!  I'm very passionate about making things and I really want to get into scrapbooking soon.  The only thing is that I feel like I have to finish a project the day I start it instead of doing a little at a time, so I drive myself nuts until it's done, ultimately making it not as fun as it could be lol!  Oh well, I've been this way for 27 years now so I should just get used to it. 

                Here's our Christmas tree!  Thanks so much Bri for helping me decorate it while the guys played PlayStation haha!  There's about 200 or more ornaments on this thing!  I love Christmas because we get to celebrate our Savior's birth and spend time with our loved ones :)

It's a boy!

This post is a little late! We found out on September 21, 2011 that we are going to have a baby boy :-) Kaden Zachary Grantham. Zac is a drummer and the name Kaden came from drum "cadence". I love the name! We cant wait to meet this little guy!! Being a girl and growing up playing with barbies and playing house and school, it's going to be fun (and a new learning experience haha) to find out what boys like to do! Of course I'm sure he will grow up watching sports with his daddy (and with me too if it's football :-)) I can't wait to see what he looks like :-) I love him so much already. The last few weeks he has been kicking like crazy! The boy is strong!! Four more months to go!

Today would have been Lucy's 100th birthday!  I Love Lucy is my absolute favorite show of all time.  It's hilarious and innocent.  There is no show that even comes close.  I think it's even the 60th anniversary of the show.  How neat!  

I don't read the Bible at all like I should.  I have no idea why.  There is absolutely nothing on this planet more important than God's word, I sadly just don't make time to read.  There are soooo many things in this world that I focus WAY too much attention on....ex. things like Facebook.  Instead of making time for God, I make time to click on that little blue app with a "f" on it many times a day.  There's nothing wrong at all with keeping up with friends/family, but it becomes very addicting for me.  A few years ago, I made a New Year's resolution to read the entire Bible, and I did.  The bad part is that I treated it like any other book.  Any other book gets thrown into a pile with other books you've read and it collects dust.  That's not how the Bible is though.  It should be read and studied every single day.  Although I have many blessings in my life that I am incredibly thankful for, I feel empty a lot because I have shoved God at the very bottom.  I don't have a real relationship with Him.  Sure I say my 10 second prayer every morning thanking Him for all my blessings, etc, but that's not enough at all.  Today, I downloaded the Holy Bible app on my phone.  Thanks to my friend Tessa for telling me about this app!  It's free and it has audio!  I love audio because I'm not the most patient reader, which is probably why I never read any books, but audio makes it much easier for me to focus lol!  I have made a commitment to read/listen to it on my phone everyday since my phone is always with me anyways.  There's tons of different reading plans to choose from and you can choose which version of the Bible you prefer.  I personally like NIV because it's easier for me to understand.  I'm going to open up my app everyday and read and study the verses in my reading plan.  God needs to be first, not last.  I'm tired of only giving God one hour of my time each week.    

First sonogram!

We got to see our baby for the first time today!  Oh my goodness, we are going to be parents!  It really just sank in.  We are so excited!  This is our sweet baby at 12 weeks and 2 days, and what a blessing it was to see the baby moving around so much and to see the heart beating so fast.  The baby is about 2 inches right now.  We will find out the sex of our baby in about 8 weeks and we can't wait!!  We honestly don't care if it's a boy or girl, but I'm pretty sure Zac wants a little boy lol :)  We all can't wait to meet you Kaden Zachary or Emma Anne :) :)  XOXO

Colorado

Alright, my last post made me want to talk about Colorado.  I will admit it, I'm absolutely obsessed with the place.  I can't get enough of it, and I never want to come back home because it's so breath-taking!  Don't get me wrong, I love Texas very much, but I love mountains soooo much.  My dad lived in Woodland Park, Colorado for 6 months and he hated it lol!  It was in 1980, and he says there was a HUGE blizzard that year.  He said he was so sick of seeing white and being cold all of the time, but he told me how beautiful it was.  Well I was feeling extremely spontaneous one day, and by 7:30 that morning, I decided that without a doubt, I was going to go to Colorado to see this place for myself.  I had never seen mountains before in my life, and I HAD to see them lol!  I got off of work at 4:30, went home and packed my bags, looked at the map, and off to Colorado I went.  My parents probably thought I was insane, but they know how spontaneous and stubborn I am, so they didn't try to stop me!  I literally almost fell asleep driving because by the time I got to Amarillo, it was pitch black outside (I left Gainesville at 9pm,) and I was exhausted from waking up early for work.  By the time I got to Colorado though and had some sleep, I realized I was in the most gorgeous place I had ever seen.  I immediately started driving around and taking TONS of pictures.  3 years later I went back.  I had more time on this trip and it was even 10 times better than the first!  First of all, I stayed in the most beautiful hotel, Hyatt Place.  I refuse to stay in any other hotel because I love this one haha!  I had Pikes Peak right outside my window!  The first night wasn't too eventful.  I had to go to the mall in Colorado Springs because I didn't have a coat, and I was planning on going on top of Pikes Peak while I was in CO.  It's freaking cold up there by the way!  The next day was one of the best days of my life.  I'm not even kidding.  I jumped in my car and drove around Colorado for hours and hours with the windows down, listening to my favorite tunes.  I went from Colorado Springs to Woodland Park to Breckenridge to Denver and back down to Colorado Springs.  It took probably about 6 hours total (I kept stopping to take pictures hehe) and lets just say all of the mountains took my breath away.  The next day, I went to Cripple Creek which is a cute little town, and driving through the mountains to get there was beyond beautiful.  Then, I went to Manitou Springs to get on a train to go on top of Pikes Peak.  It was very cloudy that day, so I couldn't see anything when I got on top of that huge mountain, but I saw what clouds look like up close lol!   I really hope Zac and I take a trip up there in the next few months before the baby comes.  It will be even better with him there :)

Lynyrd Skynyrd

I can't even begin to describe how much this band means to me.  When people find out that I love Lynyrd Skynyrd, they are confused because I don't really look like a Skynyrd fan I guess?  Lol!  I heard my dad and my brother listening to them in the living room one time, and I fell in love with this band.  This band goes with me everywhere, especially on my Colorado road trips.  There's absolutely nothing like driving through God's gorgeous mountains listening to your favorite tunes.  I've never had so much fun in my life and I'm WAY overdue for one.  I don't really know if I could choose a favorite song because I have so many!!  Free Bird and Simple Man will probably always be somewhere at the top.      

Tonight has been very eventful! I got home and cooked what we call "Pasta Meat Thingy." I'm sure we could come up with a more creative name haha! Then I did LOTS of laundry, which desperately needed to be done. Next, we went to Starbucks to get the most refreshing banana chocolate smoothie. It was so good! We came back home and I FINALLY painted my nails my favorite summer color. There's just something wonderful about freshly painted nails. I love all of this energy! I've been pretty tired lately because of the sweet baby (which Zac swears is a boy lol) but I'm taking advantage of all of this energy tonight! Shoot, I might go wash my car haha!

We're Going to be Parents!

I'm almost 9 weeks pregnant and we are so excited! Estimated due date is February 14th  I got to tell Zac on his birthday. When I got up to get ready for work that morning, I took a test. It was positive! I immediately started happy crying lol. Although it was extremely hard not to wake Zac up and tell him, I wanted it to be a complete surprise when he woke up. I already had his presents and his card sitting on the bathroom counter, so I put the test right next to his card and left for work. He called me about 45 minutes later beyond excited! When we got married, we wanted to wait a few years before having kids, but at the exact same time, we started feeling like we weren't trusting God. We were making our own plans in life and not praying about what God wanted. So we started trusting God. We decided if God wanted us to have a baby, we would have a baby! A few weeks later, we found out I'm pregnant! I have realized in life that when God is completely trusted with something, His will is brighter than the sun. Thank you Lord for blessing us.

I Can't Wait to be a Teacher! 

I have officially signed up for my fall classes woohoo!! I love NCTC. It's not big, they have wonderful teachers, and it's not too expensive! Last semester, I had the most amazing history teacher, Mrs. Wright. She was sooo interested in what she taught. Some teachers just lose their passion, or never really have it in the first place. I pray that I always have passion like she does as a teacher. I am trying to decide what grade I want to teach. At first, I wanted to be a high school math teacher because I love math, but I have a deep feeling that God wants me to be an elementary teacher. I'm so excited :-) I can't wait!!!

Chicken Spaghetti!

Thank-you pioneerwomancooks.com for your amazing chicken spaghetti recipe!! If you haven't been to Pioneer Woman's website, check it out. She has step-by-step pictures for EVERY recipe and she sure has yummy recipes :-) Plus, she is absolutely hilarious! If you're looking for the perfect dessert, try her Apple Dumplings recipe...oh my goodness it melts in your mouth. You might get a SEVERE sugar rush afterwards, but it's well worth it!

Beautiful America 

Out of all the states in our country, I've only been to a few. My favorite by far is Colorado. If I could move there, I would in a heartbeat! I have also been to Oklahoma (of
course), Florida, New Mexico, Arkansas, Ohio and Illinois. There's many more road trips ahead!! Where to next? Arizona just might be the winner!

Midnight Drive Rocks!

Zac is the drummer for Midnight Drive.  He's an amazing drummer and I'm not just saying that because I'm his wife lol!  Not only are they awesome, all 5 members of the band are extremely passionate about music, and it definitely shows when they play.  When they make it big, I'm going to be like Faye in "That Thing You Do" when their first song gets on the radio!!!  Check them out and their upcoming shows @ http://www.midnightdriveband.com/!

My Love for Hot Air Balloons!

I LOVE hot air balloons.  A couple years ago, I went to the Plano Balloon Festival and saw tons of balloons filling the sky!  I hear that Albuquerque, NM has the best show in America though.  I would love to go see it sometime :)  Shoot, I might even ride in one!



Brand new to this blog thing!

Hello family and friends!  Welcome to my blog!  I'm brand new to this blog thing, and boy let me tell you that I have had a hard time trying to figure out how to set this up lol!  I think I'm starting to get the hang of it though :)  It's a lot of fun, and I think blogs are a great way for family and friends to keep in touch :)